Kerala HC stays burial of slain Maoists amid fake encounter charges

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala high court on Tuesday directed the state government to preserve the bodies of two Maoists who were killed in an encounter in Palakkad forests last week after their families challenged a lower court’s order allowing their cremation.

Four Maoists, including a selfstyled leader Manivasagam, were killed in Palakkad forests on October 28 in an encounter with the special force commandos of the Kerala police.

Out of the four, the bodies of only Manivasagam and Karthi were identified by their families. While the families of the other two Maoists — Rema and Aravind— could not identify their bodies, police said.

Manivasagam and Karthi’s families approached the high court claiming that the police were in a hurry to cremate the bodies as several allegations of the encounters being fake had surfaced.

The petitioners have also said that they were not given the copy of the post-mortem report, claiming that the Maoists were killed in custody.

Political parties including the Communist Party of India, which is a part of the ruling coalition, and rights activists have alleged that the encounters were fake. They have alleged that the Maoists were captured alive and shot dead after custodial torture.

The state government has, however, denied this. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has maintained that police retaliated when they were ambushed by Maoists.

“Tribals told us ailing Manivasagam was captured alive and shot dead the next day,” said CPI leader Prakash Babu.

FOUR MAOISTS, INCLUDING A SELFSTYLED LEADER MANIVASAGAM, WERE KILLED IN PALAKKAD FORESTS ON OCT 28 IN AN ENCOUNTER WITH SPECIAL COMMANDOS OF THE KERALA POLICE